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Date Posted: 21:00:10 07/22/03 Tue
Author: Danilo Cristófaro Alves da Silva
Subject: TaskTwelve

Task12 July 21st – July 25th
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Faculdade de Letras LET 076C Professora: Vera Menezes
Aluno: Danilo Cristófaro Alves da Silva - No: 2002026917
___________________________________________________________________

Task: Examine one textbook and choose a good communicative activity. Describe it and then classify that activity according to the types presented by Littlewood.

According to Littlewood “it is impossible to state whether an individual learner sees his purpose as being primarily a-) to communicate meanings intelligibly, b-) to produce correct language or c-) to do both in equal proportion”(p.16).
What Littlewood is saying is that the focus of the lesson can be either on communication, production of correct language or both. However, the important thing is not “to think of clear-cut distinctions, but in terms of differences of emphasis” (p.16).

Based on that I start here describing my activity:
The book I examined was English File 1. I decided to extract my activity from page 37 Revision and Extension Activity. This activity is not clearly explained in the book and the following steps are a blend of the book’s contents and my own initiative making use of the book’s material.
On page 37 there is information about the Edinburgh Festival. There are also train timetables from and to London, a Festival Guide information pack with times for different shows in different venues, hotel prices and opening times for banks, shops, cafés, etc.

The class is then divided in pairs. Students are told they are tourists travelling in England and that they have decided to go and spend a few days in Edinburgh for the festival. Each pair is given a sheet of paper with the amount of money they have to spend and the day they need to be back in London (where they are based). The information in this sheet of paper can be made interesting in the form that some groups will have a lot to spend and some others will not. Perhaps another group neds to be back in London before the weekend’s best show.

Their task is to decide what they want to do during their stay in Edinburgh (eating out, going to shows, going to the bank to withdraw ome more money), how they will spend the money they have and what time is the best to catch the train back to London. They can be stimulated to be creative and find unusual solutions like spending the night at the train station and saving up enough money so that they can go see more places and shows.
The main aim is to get the pair talking to each other trying to decide on the best options and findind dolutions to possible difficulties.

It is important to remind students they should be able to use structures already presented to them in the previous unit such us “How much does it cost?”, “What time does the last train to London depart?” and the like.

It is interesting to point out that even though they are being asked to use these sentences they would not just be repeating from previous lessons as they would not be buying the tickets or booking hotels but actually talking to one another on how to get the best out of the festival.

After they have finished devising their plans they can tell the class what they had decided to do and here students are encouraged to put questions to the would-be tourists.

I believe this Functional Communication Activity is the one Littlewood describes as being the Processing Information one. “The stimulus for communication comes from the need to discuss and evaluate these facts, in pairs or groups, in order to solve a problem or reach a decision.”(p.36).

Obviously, some aspects of this particular activity can (and should) be altered to adapt to a class needs. For example, depending on the age group or the interest of students regarding the Edinburgh Festival, then, the occasion could be changed to a rock concert in Rio de Janeiro or any actual forthcoming event.

The role of the teacher in this lesson should be one that Littlewood describes as being “an opportunity for learners to produce language that they had recently learnt”(p.16). The teacher should not be the centre of attention here. On the contrary, he, or she, should be available to help, guide through, encourage students to produce language.

In conclusion, this activity borders the Littlewood’s following chapter. That of Social Interactional Activities. As Littlewood himself acknowledges: “the activities stimulate the demands that will arise outside the classroom, where learners will likewise need to use language to solve immediate communication problems”(p.39).


Bibliography:
Littlewood, W. Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p. 16 to 42 (xerox)

English File 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. p.37
___________________________________________________________________

Task12 July 21st – July 25th
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Faculdade de Letras LET 076C Professora: Vera Menezes
Aluno: Danilo Cristófaro Alves da Silva - No: 2002026917

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